Game Talk

Doug Carr

11/24/2003

The Arizona Wildcats 107-73 victory over Northern Arizona University was a "speed kills" clinic. The Wildcats created havoc on the defensive end of the court, causing 22 NAU turnovers and held the Lumberjacks to 32 percent shooting from the field.<P>
After the game NAU coach Mike Adras and the UA players and coaches had some comments .

NAU coach Mike Adras

On the maturity of Arizona's younger players
"When the Arizona players were coming in after our shoot around this afternoon, I was just looking at how much bigger Channing (Frye) is and Andre (Iguodala) is. I think they've really done a tremendous job with their body in the off-season, not to mention their shooting ability. You know they have the ability, now they have the physiques to go with it and you watch that and your in awe of it because it's a lot of fun to look at, but not as the opposing team's coach."

On Arizona's quickness
"Certainly (Arizona) can do a lot of things out there on the court. That team is exceptionally quick. You'll have to show me another team that's that quick. I don't think we're going to face a team that's as quick as they are and certainly I'm not sure there are any in the country that are that quick."

Arizona assistant coach Josh Pastner

On the play of Isaiah Fox and the team
"(Isaiah Fox) did a nice job. But NAU is team that takes charges, they plays hard, they're well coached. We had too many turnovers and we can't do that on Friday (against Florida)."

On the Wildcats' team speed
"Athletically we were better and quicker, but we let them have some open looks and fortunately they missed some shots."

On the use of the full court press
"It depends on the team we play. But that's an advantage we have. We have to use our speed and quickness."

On the versatility of this Arizona team
"It makes it nice because we can use Hassan (Adams) as a wing or play him inside, the same thing with Andre (Iguodala). The only true post players we have are Channing (Frye), Isaiah and Kirk (Walters). Except for Channing, they're all post players. And Channing might be our second best shooter from the perimeter."

How did feel getting out there on the floor after sitting out the two exhibition games?
"I had a turnover and I was trying to rush stuff, so I was a little nervous in the beginning. When I first got there I was tired. But after I got that second wind it was good to be out there. Mustafa was looking for me and I got a lot of easy buckets and that felt good."

Was it fun to finally be out there?
"Everyone played together and that's what's fun. We got up 12 or 14 points and everyone was out there rebounding and getting into the press and having fun. It felt good."

What was it like to finally play another a college team?
"It helped us get ready by playing a real game. NAU is better than the exhibition teams we played. They are a regular college team and they run their stuff and they execute their plays. So it's good to play against guys who run their plays and execute their stuff."

Do you like the banging or the running game?
"Oh, the banging part. I don't like to run."

Andre Iguodala

On the effort of the team
"We let up a couple of times on defense. We played together and the (team) stats were pretty even, so I was impressed with the way we played."

What do you learn from a game like this?
"It just lets us know that we have to come out each game and play hard."

On his conditioning
"I knew I was in shape. Brad Arnett, our trainer, has gotten us in shape so I knew my wind would stay with me."

On the play of Isaiah Fox
"He came out there and played well. I think that's the most blocks (4) he's had in his career. It was nice have him out there to help us out."

What do you know about Florida?
"They're a great team. I think they go 6-1, 6-2, 6-8, 6-9. 6-9. They have a lot of quickness also, so it's a team similar to us and it'll be an up and down game."

Kirk Walters

How did it feel to play in your first official college game?
"I felt pretty good. It was good to get out there and get started. I like the fast pace. It's real high intensity and fun to watch."

Were you please with the way the team played?
"I think the first half we were just weren't taking care of the ball and things like that. We need to focus on a lot of little things like jump stopping and not rushing things and taking what's given to us and not trying to do what we want to do necessarily. Things like that. I think we corrected a lot of things in the second half."

As a first year player , how impressed are you with this team?
"It's pretty impressive, especially since Isaiah got back."

Arizona coach Lute Olson

Opening comments
"From our end of it, in the second half we played much better. In the first half, we were careless with the ball and over-penetrated too many times. In the second half we did a better job of communicating and switching and moving the basketball. I thought at time we were impatient. I thought Northern did a good job of running their offense and getting good looks (at the basket). They're usually a better shooting team than that and a lot of times it wasn't the pressure we were putting on the shots, they were just missing. They had open opportunities."

On the play of Isaiah Fox
"Isaiah Fox came off the bench and gave us a big lift at both ends of the court. I think you can see why we think he's greatly improved. He's running the court well, he's much quicker and he did a good job of positioning himself. He had eight offensive rebounds and if you do that you have to be anticipating shots and I think he did an excellent job of that."

On the play of Mustafa Shakur
"Mustafa played really well again. The turnovers he had were in the first half and he got the ball down court quickly and he makes a lot of things happen."

Where do you need the most improvement?
"Defensively we are not communicating well at all. It's not a difficult thing to do but everyone has to be involved. I think that needs to be addressed. We turned the ball over way too many times. We gave up too many second and third opportunities and defensively we have to do a better job of making the transition. I think that can be easily corrected, but it's got to be everybody getting back defensively. The second half we did a better job of challenging the pass. The first half we sort of let them catch the ball at the three-point line without much of a problem and the second half we did much better job of that. But we have a lot of thing that need to be improved."

What are you most pleased with?
"You can see that with the quickness and athleticism that this can be a really good team. I think you can see that Isaiah makes a big difference to us because he gives us experience inside. And Kirk's going to be a good player, but I thought we were going to have to get the cardiac unit out there and he played only 14 minutes. So he needs a lot of work on his conditioning. He's working at that, but a big young guy has problems that way."

Are you happy with the conditioning of the team?
"Oh, yes. They're going up and down the court well and we're normally defending well, so it's going to take a lot of effort. So I'm not disappointed with the conditioning of the team as a whole, I'm disappointed at the conditioning of a couple of guys who have to push themselves harder."

On the play of Salim Stoudemire
"His floor game in the second half was far superior to the first half. He had seven assists and that's a good night's work. He had five rebounds and that's something we've talked to the guys about. Mustafa had five boards, Salim had five boards and Chris Rodgers had five boards, so that's a lot better than what we've had."

On playing some very tough upcoming road games
"We've got some really tough games coming up, but we've always had some tough ones. I'm a firm believer if you're going to have improvement and if you're going to be ready after the first of the year you better play some good teams and you better play them away from home. Two of the three upcoming games are at neutral sites, so you get the big game feeling from playing there. And St. Louis will be a challenge because they are going to play very slowly and very deliberately and it's important for us to play against a team like that because Washington State is going to play like that. It'll be a challenge, but it will teach us patience. All three of those games will be challenges, but we'll be a better team for playing them regardless of what the outcome is."

On achieving his 500th UA victory
"It just means I've been here a long time I guess. I think back on it and there have been a lot of good players in those years from 400 to 500. Some great wins and some tough loses, but I hoped by this time I'd already be retired. I don't know what I'd do if I retired but it's been fun. The fans here are great and we've had a lot of great kids to coach. It's been great for me and I'm glad we've been able to develop consistency in the program. When I first came here I said I didn't want to develop a team, I wanted to develop a program and we would be able to be a competitive team every year. I certainly didn't expect it to be the way it's been, we've average about 25 wins a season. So that's beyond anything I'd ever be able to imagine."